Many of you may have heard of Wicca and some of you may have not. What would not surprise me is the misconceptions that a lot of people have about Wicca.

Wicca is an ancient religion that deals with the supernatural and magickal aspects of life. It is also a fairly new religion; though it was one of the first neo-pagan religions, it is actually witchcraft that is ancient. Witchcraft is a large part of Wicca, but it is not all. You do not have to be a witch to be Wiccan, and you do not have to be Wiccan to be a witch.

Now, when you think of the word witch, you conjure up an image of an old wrinkled woman with warts and missing teeth standing before a steaming cauldron full of animal and human parts. Some witches and Wiccans may be old women and they may have warts, but this general misconception is what you have thought of since childhood horror stories of the Wicked Witch of the West. There are many erroneous perceptions that you may have about Wicca. I’ll start with the most common --Satan.

Wiccans do not even believe that Satan exists. Satan is someone that the Christians created, therefore, Wiccans do not worship Satan, nor is any Satanist Wiccan. Straight from the Principles of Wiccan Belief, they state: “We do not accept the concept of absolute evil, nor do we worship any entity known as “Satan” or “the Devil”, as defined by Christian tradition. We do not seek power through the suffering of others, nor accept that personal benefit can be derived only by denial to another. We believe that we should seek within Nature that which is contributory to our health and well-being.”

Wiccans do not have any animosity against Christianity or any other religion, as many may believe and say. The only thing we feel anger and regret about is that they believe that their way is “the only way” and have sought to deny freedom to others and to suppress other ways of religious practice and belief.

Another misconception may be the thought that we, Wiccans, consciously do harm to others in rituals and spells. The Wiccans ideal of morality is simple: do what you want as long as you harm none. This rule contains another unwritten condition: do nothing that will harm yourself. Another misconception is that we developed after the rise of Christianity, when actually the worship of nature has been in existance for centuries before Christianity was ever thought the true way of “finding faith”.

One erroneous belief that some people may hope to be true is the psychic ability to move items with their mind and will power. I will admit that it is possible to move some things.. like an upside down glass a centimeter or less… when you have your fingertips resting on the glass. The ability to move subjects with your mind is quite impossible, if you are imagining throwing them across the room.

Beliefs may be a difficult subject to cover, as Wicca is a personally structured religion. There are no boundaries set for the follower, no restrictions in what you have to believe. For there are so many different paths you can follow in Wicca, you always have the freedom to choose as you will as long as no harm is done or caused. Wicca does embrace reincarnation, but not that the soul will reincarnate into anything other then a human body. Few Wiccans believe that they began their existence as rocks, trees, snails or birds before they evolved to the point where they could incarnate as human beings. These types of creatures and substances do possess a type of soul, but not the sort that humans have. Wicca, like many religions, recognizes Deity as dual. It worships both the God and the Goddess. These deities are equals, loving and warm, not detached living in heaven but omnipresent throughout the universe.

Wiccans generally believe that all evil originates with human kind and is not the production of the devil. Wiccans believe in free will and that humans have full control of and responsibility for our lives. Our weaknesses and misdeeds are not blamed on some evil deity. Wicca’s beliefs center around the worship of nature, the love and free giving of thanks.

Wicca is a nature worshipping religion. Many other religions may label it as a religion for feminist girl scouts who like to pick flowers. Wiccans are very nature-oriented, and they do thank the trees and the rivers, and wind for what they provide to people. “We acknowledge a depth of power far greater than that apparent to the average person. Because it is far greater than ordinary it is sometimes called “supernatural”, but we see it as lying within that which is naturally potential to all.” For each thing in nature there is a God, a Deity. A supreme power that rules over that specific item or source. An example is Artemis, the Greek Goddess of the hunt.

Wicca is a religion that doesn’t believe in one solitary God, it’s a religion that is pagan. A pagan is a person that embraces all the Gods and Goddesses and not one solitary God. Wiccans believe that there are two basic beings created from the divine power that created the universe and us. These two basic beings are the God and the Goddess. The Goddess and God are equal; neither is higher or more deserving of respect.

Some Wiccans tend to forget the God entirely; this may be because we have always lived in a patriarchal religion, and with the loss of acknowledgment of the feminine aspect of Divinity. Since a religion based entirely on feminine energy is as unbalanced as one totally masculine in focus, the dual-divinities idea is a perfect balance of the two energies. They work together, as one, they are different, but the same.

The Goddess is the universal mother, the source of fertility and endless wisdom. She comes in three aspects: the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone, symbolized in the waxing, full and waning of the moon. The Goddess represents birth, death, and rebirth. The Wicca name Her as the giver of fertility, love and abundance, though they acknowledge Her darker side as well. Anyone can look into the Moon, the soundless, continuously moving sea, and in the green growth of the first spring and see the Goddess. She has many names, the Divine Source, the Great Mother, though no matter what you may call her She listens and answers. She is the young beautiful woman who runs through brown lush meadows with her heels trailing in star dust, the mother heavy with child, and the old woman who weaves our lives and deaths.

The God can be seen in the Sun, rising and setting in the endless cycle which governs every Wiccan’s life. The God is also tender of the wild animals, and His domains are the forests untouched by human hands, burning deserts, and towering mountains. He is associated with the yearly cycle of greening, maturation and harvest. He is the fully ripened harvest, delicious wine pressed from grapes, golden grain waving in a lone field, glowing apples hanging from bountiful boughs on October mornings. With the Goddess He celebrates and rules sex. The Wicca do not avoid sex or speak of it in such hushed words. They consider it a part of nature and is accepted as such. Maybe this is why Wicca is unlike anything you’ve ever heard and explains why this religion is different from any other.

Wicca is also unlike most religions in the fact that it sees the creators as not distant, and untouchable, but within themselves and manifest in all of nature’s creatures and sources. Some Wiccans may see the Deities as humanized by themselves, that we created Them by believing in Them, by reinforcing their energies and giving power.

Now this is quite the opposite of the Christian belief that we are here to serve God. In their belief system, their service to their God certainly does make Him a strong God, as the sheer number of people that serve Him clearly shows. However, the Christian God requires an unquestioning, slavish obedience and fear from his followers that the Pagan Gods do not require. Pagans do not serve their Gods in their energy forms with endless worship, begging prayers and thanks. Instead, we serve Them in Their material forms by honoring and caring for the Earth and all of it’s inhabitants.

Wiccans recognize their own Divinity, their own power, and they recognize that the Goddess, The God, and all of the manifestations in the form of various pantheons, are energy forms with power and personality, but willing and able to aid them in their earthly incarnation. They recognize that They are made of the same divine energy that we are made of and that we all have the same Source. While some ancients may have believed that the Pagan Gods required sacrifice of blood, I am not convinced that sacrifice was a requirement of the Gods, but rather, I believe it was a requirement of the bloodthirsty Priests and Leaders of the time. Wiccans and Pagans now believe that the sacrifice of life is not only unnecessary but unwanted.

Since Wicca involves Magick, yes with a “k”, I will try and explain how magick comes into religion. Wicca utilizes magick - it’s like saying a prayer, for it is simply a form of concentration and communication with Deity. This is called Religious Magick. It’s not just about magick though, so if you are looking into Wicca for the magick, then Wicca is probably not for you. Wicca embraces magick, but doesn’t center around it. Magick is not a means of forcing nature to do your will. Magick is natural, it’s a harmonious movement of energies to create needed change.

Wiccans do not perform spells dealing with wealth, love or, fame. This is because they consider that, in altering situations that should be dealt with normally by using magick, it also alters lives, and Wicca does not believe it is the followers’ right to do so. Spells are performed for small things, like giving yourself good luck, or making yourself more kissable. Wiccans do not turn to the Goddess or spells as a way to deal with life, society, or work. Rituals are usually performed on accordance to the phases of the moon, and the Sabbats.

The Sabbats are Wiccan Holidays that are celebrated with rituals to thank nature for all She has given, for that is why Wiccans gather in covens. To share the beauty of nature with each other.

The joyous union with nature is what Wicca is centered on. Wicca’s temples and festivals are flower-splashed meadows, forests, beaches, and deserts. Their rituals are about becoming one with nature, loving it for what it is, not what you can make it. Wiccans listen to the Earth, they can hear the music of dancing flowers in the wind, for nature is constantly singing to us, revealing Her secrets. Slowly though, everyone is losing touch with Nature, with the real needs of our world.

When we finally lose touch with our blessed planet, we lose touch with Deity. Wicca is not all about Deity, it is centered around love for that which is real, the flowers that are newly blooming, the leaves that have turned red and orange. It’s the caring for our world that Wicca is really about. Rituals, myths, spells.... those are secondary to the sound of the wind rustling through the solid trees, the smell of the clean air, the sight of deer drinking from Mother Nature’s pond, the knowing that our planet is slowing dispersing, slowly slipping from our grasp as more of Earth is destroyed. Wiccans talk to trees, plants and animals. They can see the auras of the animals and rocks. They can feel the energy running through every substance and creature manifested from our God and Goddess.

Maybe now your opinion of Wicca has changed, transformed into something new. If it has evolved to something better or worse, I do not know. Wicca is a religion that offers no judgement on its followers, they choose and do as they will, as long as no harm is done. I haven’t stated any faults about Wicca, except that if you do start to study Wicca, others may find it difficult to accept, and times may be confusing for you. I really don’t know of any faults, for Wicca is a religion that is structured by the follower, the boundaries set by what the follower knows and can do.

Wicca takes concentration, determination, patience and loyalty to yourself. The Goddess and the God exist within every being on earth, you need not speak aloud to get Her attention, you need not sing to gather His favor, you can quietly sit in your bedroom with a candle lit, or without, and talk to Her, opening your heart, for that is really what Wicca is about.